Jumbo Kheti to tackle Elephant Riding Farms

Villages in central Assam’s Nagaon district are experimenting with a new way for keeping crop-raiding elephants off their crops by setting aside land to create a meal zone for them.

Jumbo Kheti

• Farmers of 12 villages in the Ronghang-Hatikhuli area of central Assam’s Nagaon district have donated 203 bighas (roughly 33 hectares) of community land for Jumbo Kheti.
• Farmers also took turns to plant paddy exclusively for the elephants which often come down the hills of the adjoining Karbi Anglong district.
• This jumbo kheti has been envisaged as the last line of mealy defence against 350-400 elephants which often venture too close to human habitations.
• The farmers have also planted saplings of 2,000 outenga (elephant apple), 1,500 jackfruit and 25,000 banana plants for elephants to feed on.

The farmers were facing the crop destruction and the elephants were paying the price of life due to electrocution by illegal electric fences and injuries by spears and arrows, died in the jungles up to the hills.